April, 2019

So much felt like it had changed within me since I left. Yet, as I walked through the bustling London streets where the passers-by hung their heads low in their gloom and the clouds created their overcast hue over the city, I couldn't help but think nothing had changed here in the time I was gone.

Townhouses lined the narrow cobblestone streets, and traffic headed only one way up the road as I weaved around people as though I was on a mission. Though I really didn't have a destination in mind.

I had an earbud in to make it seem I wasn't talking to myself as Ben and I went back and forth in our game plan... Well, I was fleshing out the game plan and he was simply voicing his unending worries.

"I really think you shouldn't go in alone, Olivia," he pleaded. "At least ask Erica or Jade—"

"What part of 'I'm not here to revisit the past' do you not get?" I mumbled back at him before hoisting my bag further up my shoulder and quickening my pace.

I was even staying at a hotel in the East End, hoping that I'd risk no chance of running into them in the West if I stuck to the other side of the city. And he knew that. So why couldn't he get it through his thick skull?

"At least do this tomorrow, then," he tried again.

"The sooner I can leave this city the better," I mumbled back.

"But... why today of all days do you want to go out? Surely you're better off relaxing, having nice food, and—"

"What is so wrong with me starting today?" I demanded, coming to a stop to glare at him.

Ben paused, his eyes searching me, somewhat amused, but mostly filled with morose. "You're so obsessed with your mission you haven't even noticed the date, have you?"

"The date?" I queried. Then, when I realised he wasn't going to help me out here, I reluctantly fished my phone out of my bag. Frustrated and more than at the end of my patience with his games, it took a few moments for it to click as the screen lit up and told me what I had to know. Mostly because I was distracted by how many notifications I had—something I didn't even check after last night's nightmare.

Today was the 29th.

"Happy birthday, Olivia," he breathed, gaze anxiously and eagerly searching my face.

With a sigh, I replied, "This doesn't change anything."

"But it's your twenty-first. Most people are partying, hanging with friends and family. In fact, what better excuse to reconnect with everyone—"

"Oh my gosh. Do you ever quit?" I began storming away again, more than miffed that the tirade had begun once more.

"You shouldn't be alone today."

"I want to be alone though. When will you get that?"

"Oliv—" he started to reprimand, but a scream a couple of streets away stopped us both in our tracks.

"Did you hear—" I started to whisper, glancing his way without care anymore if I looked strange.

His head turned to meet mine, a grave expression washing across his face as he gave me a slow nod.

At once, I started to run.

"Olivia," he called after me as he ran by my side. "I still think—"

"Just shut up, Ben. This is no time to worry if I should have backup. Someone needs me now!"

Though, as I finally reached the alleyway the screams had come from, they had already ceased.

Having just stopped before the buildings separated, I kept my cover for the last moment I could to ready myself.

Heart pounding in my chest, I took hesitant steps into the backstreet, ever so slowly twisting my head to glance around, as though any sudden movement could spook the infected human.

The girl, whose screams I had heard, cowered in the corner with her eyes clamped shut, chest rising and falling with rapid action as she panted.

Yet the monster—the Made—had another victim pressed against the wall. The woman's brown locks cascaded over his pasty, bluish arm. Blood dripped down her neck over her golden skin. And her head slowly started to droop as her body went limp.

"Do something," Ben breathed in my ear.

"Do what? Dance and do the hula?" I asked, wondering if it really was a great idea to offer myself as bait when I didn't even know if my blood would kill it.

But it seemed my voice had stirred something in the girl.

In a short, swift movement, her head craned up a little, honey-coloured eyes seeking me out. Then I thought I almost saw a smile tug at the corners of her lips.

Before I could question though, her hand whipped up, fingers weaving into the hair of the monster. But instead of dragging him away from her, she held him steady. And I quickly began to understand why.

The Made continued to drink, but the deeper and more he drank, the more his limbs started to flail. He tried to push away from her, but as she kept him locked to her neck, he kept sucking.

Then it happened quickly.

He started to spasm against her. Joints locking, he shook and twisted as his limbs began to thin. In front of my eyes, I watched his flesh sink inwards until a skeleton of skin and bones was left.

And once he went still, she dropped her hold of him.

The Made fell to the ground, the corpse-like remains staring hollowly at the grey sky.

All the while, the girl pulled out a tissue from her bag and wiped at her neck before placing a bandage over the top. Without looking at me again, she pulled out a small vial full of glowing purple liquid.

In measured steps, the woman approached the cowering figure in the alleyway. Though before the honey-eyed beauty knelt down in front of her, a glimpse, a flash of a memory or vision zoomed through my mind, along with it a sense of dread.

It was night time... I was in an alley just like this one.

A chill hovered in the late-summer air, and the sky had finally gone dark.

I was trembling.

Numb.

Terrified beyond belief as echoes of burning touches ghosted my skin.

"Hey," a voice said as they approached me. "It's just me." He started to kneel down...

But at once, the memory vanished, the face becoming a blur before I could make him out.

"Here, drink this," her saccharine voice tainted by an all-too-familiar accent said, yanking me back to the present.

"W-what is it?" the trembling girl asked, glancing up at the golden-skinned woman.

"It will help with the nerves. I think we need to be calm before we go to the police. What do you think?" Head tilting to the side, she gave the girl a bright smile.

So, without any doubt, the girl uncapped the vial and downed the potion in one.

At once, a blank look overcame the girl's face. Blinking, she turned her head this way and that.

"Where am I?" she breathed, almost glancing at the dead body.

But before she could, the woman grabbed the girl's head, forcing her to look into her honey eyes. "You should go home. Now," she said, sweetness now completely removed from her voice and warning caressing the undertones.

At once, the girl leapt to her feet, grabbing her bag before she ran out of the alleyway and out of our sights.

And once she was gone... the honey eyes snapped towards me.

Now taking purposeful steps my way, her head tilted and turned as her gaze picked me apart thread by thread.

And I couldn't help but squirm.

"Don't run," Ben breathed.

"What do you mean don't run?" I hissed under my breath.

But the girl stopped. Head jolting back, she looked on either side of me before meeting my gaze again. "Who are you talking to?" she queried.

"Idiot," Ben muttered.

"Takes one to know one," I mumbled back. Then, louder, "No one."

"I can hear you," she said.

"Interesting," Ben mused.

"Interesting how?" I asked quietly again.

"Shh... she can hear you." But for some reason, an intrigued edge was tainting his tone. And he almost seemed... amused. It was as though I was on the outside of an inside joke.

"Yeah, I heard that part—" I started.

But she had reached me now. Stopping a few steps away, she demanded, "Who are you talking to? Do you have a wire taped to you? Are you a reporter?"

"You should tell her what you are," Ben immediately said before I could process what she was asking.

"Are you nuts?" I hissed at him, not even caring that the woman was waiting for an answer, anger quickly replacing the annoyance on her face.

"Look at the Made, Olivia. Notice anything about its corpse?" Ben said.

Knowing this really wasn't the time, I reluctantly complied with his request. Eyes locking on the body, another image consumed my mind—this one more vivid.

My hands were covered in drying blood—Ben's blood.

A thin, wiry man was pinned to the ground beneath me.

The light left his ghostly eyes not long ago...

Two fiery hands dulled as Lukas released his hold of his uncle's corpse.

Head snapping back to the woman, I quickly blurted without thinking, "Are you a Terra Fairy?"